Several council candidates and the current mayor are using smoke and mirrors to minimize financial needs. They don’t always believe staff analysis, yet there is growing awareness that the resources the town has in order to provide the services citizens want, just isn’t enough. So they jump through hoops to rationalize how to do more with less, which isn’t working, or to disguise the new sources.

How soon we forget that the town was organized under county law, providing a road district, sanitary district, fire district and school district. We “pioneers” paid these property taxes. The town still has two Districts, which use a combination of property taxes and bonding to manage infrastructure capital and maintenance needs. Our school district, strangled by state government, has passed overrides and bond issues to supplement its needs. Fountain Hills voters recognize the value and vote “yes.”

Having disbanded the road and fire districts, Fountain Hills now finds it doesn’t have the tools to fund infrastructure projects and services – absent the property tax that those districts had the power to levy. So voilà, let’s start a “facility” district now to solve our needs? Why bother doing that when voters have the power to approve a property tax to meet infrastructure requirements without creating a superficial district with unintended outcomes and more government? (And without paying interest on bonds.)

It takes town leadership to create and justify a plan. No smoke, no mirrors. Just facts. Fountain Hills voters are smart, they’ll understand the issues. They have for schools. So let’s call it what it is: We need a rational way to pay for these infrastructure needs.

It takes leaders like Ginny Dickey to present the facts and project confidence in our community. Write in Ginny Dickey for mayor and connect the arrow.